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Date

Permanent Link

Thesis Discipline

Civil Engineering

Degree Grantor

University of Canterbury

Degree Level

Masters

Degree Name

Master of Engineering

Following a major earthquake event, essential public amenities such as medical facilities and
transport networks need to remain functional - not only to fulfil their ongoing role in serving
the community but also to cope with the added and immediate demand of a population
affected by a natural disaster. Furthermore, the economic implications of wide spread damage
to housing and commercial facilities should not be discounted. A shift in design approach is
required that is consistent with current trends towards performance based building design. The
present aim is to achieve seismic energy dissipation during the earthquake event, without the
aftermath of damage to structural elements, whilst maintaining design economies.
Structures permitted to rock on their foundations and provide recoverable rotations at the
beam-column interfaces offer significant advantages over those using conventional ductile
detailing. A jointed construction philosophy can be applied whereby structural elements are
connected with unbonded prestressing tendons. Supplemental damping is provided by
replaceable flexural steel components designed to deform inelastically. For this research a
multi-storey test building of one quarter scale has been constructed and tested on an
earthquake simulator at the University of Canterbury. A computer model has been developed
and a set ofpreliminary design procedures proposed.